The price of Bitcoin surpassed $50,000 for the first time in four weeks on Tuesday, adding to this month’s gains on increasing interest from institutional investors. 

At the start of September, the world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped below the $50,000 mark within a broad sell-off in shares of crypto and blockchain companies. Bitcoin’s price dropped further on 21 September, to a low of $40,596.

Bitcoin hit a high of $50,808.25 on Tuesday, and at the time of writing stood at $51,405.

In addition, Ether increased 1.5% to $3,434 whilst XRP edged up 2.2% to hit $1.0656.

One of the factors fuelling Bitcoin’s surge is the rise in institutional crypto services from banks and financial institutions to cope with increasing demand, Reuters reports.

Earlier in the week, Bank of America Corporation issued its first crypto-focused research report as other mainstream financial institutions increase their digital currency involvement.

"The banks are capitulating one by one," stated Martha Reyes, head of research at digital asset prime brokerage and exchange BEQUANT. "For those of us working in the space, the fact that it's too big to ignore is hardly news, and the regulators certainly aren't ignoring it."

Moreover, CoinShares data showed crypto investment products and funds reported inflows for the seventh consecutive week, as institutional investors were bullish on more encouraging words from regulators.

On Tuesday, CoinDesk published a crypto market review showing a 25% gain for Bitcoin in Q3 and a 32% gain for Ether.

The findings also referred to the surge in NFTs (non-fungible tokens). These are digital-only (non-physical) collectibles encoded onto a blockchain - the same technology on which cryptocurrencies operate - creating a unique digital watermark showing ownership and the digital rights to that collectible.

NFT sales skyrocketed to $10.7 billion in the third quarter. On the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, sales volumes reached $3.4 billion in August.